New manga translation: "Donatello's New Invention!"

For those of you who dig the TMNT manga section of the site, I've got a new one for you!

You can download "Donatello's New Invention" over at the Optical Internet Translation Gang website!

This was the pack-in comic by Naoto Tsushima that came with the 2003 Donatello action figure (identical to the Playmates version, distributed in Japan by TakaraTomy).  As always, the raw scans were provided by Adam Winters, the translation was by me, and the image/text editing came courtesy of Cryomancer.

And if you haven't explored it yet, you can find links to all of our TMNT manga translations on the TMNT Entity manga index.

New manga translation! 2003 Casey Jones toy pack-in comic

One more update before the weekend!  Adam Winters (raw scans), Cryomancer (image edits) and I (script translation) have finished up another TMNT manga scanlation.  This time, it's the pack-in comic that came with the 2003 Casey Jones action figure.  Story and art by Naoto Tsushima!

OITG's website is having some trouble for the moment, so I'll link to their Mediafire page so you can download from there.

So far, we've done the April and Casey pack-in comics, but I'd love to do more of them.  Unfortunately, they aren't easy to come by.  But hey, if you have scans of any of the others, send em our way and we'll be happy to scanlate them for you!

TMNT III manga adaptation, Chapter 6 translated!

This is it!  The final chapter of the Comic Bom Bom TMNT III manga adaptation, translated and ready to read!

TMNT III, Chapter 6: Time Warp Again!

As always, I want to thank Adam Winter and M. Russell for providing the very rare raw scans of the comic, and Cryomancer of the Optical Internet Translation gang for all the image clean-up and lettering.  The translation on my part wasn't always easy (Cryo actually clued me into a few pop culture references that flew over my head!), but I'm very pleased with the finished product!

The OITG will have a full volume edition available in the future and I'll update when that happens.  If you missed the first 5 chapters, they're indexed here for your convenience.

I'll probably do a write-up about this manga and maybe some comparisons between it, the movie, the American comic adaptation and the less-interesting Dengeki manga adaptation.  Probably for Adventures in Poor Taste; I'll update here, of course.

As for the future of TMNT manga translations here at TMNT Entity?

Well, they've never been my most popular feature, but I've had a lot of fun doing them and it's been great working with Adam and Cryo, both of whom are very passionate about these projects.  We're almost out of TMNT manga (that aren't episode adaptations), but there are a couple shorts that Adam has dug up that we might do in the future.  It'll be a while, but they're on the backburner for "someday".  I'll be all out of Mirage TMNT comics to review, soon, so it'll give me something to do after I cross that bridge.

Anyway, I hope those of you who have been reading the manga as we've been translating it enjoy this finale.  As you've no doubt already guessed, it is QUITE different from the TMNT III film.

TMNT III manga adaptation, Chapter 6: Ninja Turtles vs. Samurai King!!!

TMNT Entity and the Optical Internet Translation Gang have teamed up once again for the penultimate chapter of the radically different TMNT III manga adaptation: "Ninja Turtles vs. Samurai King!!!"

The showdown with Lord Norinaga, like everything else in this wild "adaptation", goes very differently than in the film.  And no, the above page selection doesn't ruin it for you.

Hopefully we'll be able to get the final chapter of the adaptation done in the next couple of months and we can put this manga behind us.  It's been pretty fun to translate so far!

As always, special thanks to Adam Winters for providing the raw scans and Cryomancer of the OITG for clean-up and lettering.

TMNT III, Manga Adaptation: Chapter 4 translated!

Bet you thought I forgot about translating the rest of the Japanese manga adaptation of the third TMNT live action movie, huh?

Well, actually, yeah.  I sorta did.  But thanks to some prodding from Cryomancer and the talented folks at the Optical Internet Translation Gang, I finished up Chapter 4!

You can download TMNT III, Chapter 4: "Infiltration! Castle Norinaga!!!" in a nice .CBR over at the OITG site!

This chapter is pretty much 100% original material and is the point where the manga and movie go their separate ways.  It sees the TMNT negotiate a subterranean labyrinth while doing battle with manga-original villains Iron and Silver.  Meanwhile, April and the villagers keep Walker distracted by putting on a faux magic act.

It's some weeeiiirrrddd stuff, but I had fun translating it.  I'll try and get Chapters 5 and 6 done early next year to complete the whole adaptation.

Enjoy!

TMNT III manga, Chapter 3 translated!

The Optical Internet Translation Gang were having some trouble with their URL, which wound up in the site shutting down and this chapter getting delayed for... a while.  But the TMNT manga translations are back on track!

TMNT III (Comic Bom Bom adaptation), Chapter 3.

Once again, you'll encounter some familiarity with the flow of the film's plot, but otherwise it takes the characters on a very different course.  It's fun, weird, stupid stuff.  I'm liking how the characters, so utterly bland in the movie, are much more animated in this version.  Especially Walker, though his dialogue is a bitch to translate (to illustrate how "foreign" he is, his dialogue will randomly switch from kanji/hiragana to big blocks of katakana which is disorienting and obnoxious to read).

So there you go!  I think this is the halfway point of the TMNT III adaptation and I'll try to get the rest translated quicker for those who have been waiting patiently for the project to get back on its feet.

TMNT III manga adaptation Chapter 2 translated!

Check out chapter 2 of the TMNT III manga adaptation courtesy of the Optical Internet Translation Gang!

This one was fun to translate, as you start to get an idea of how much the manga adaptation of TMNT III deviates from the actual movie.  It still follows the same general plot outline, but it's all quite a bit more exciting.  Lord Norinaga now has his own bumbling henchmen (Iron and Silver, pictured above) and the trip down to the dungeon for April's rescue is pepped up with Indiana Jones-style booby traps.

Thanks, as always, go to Adam Winters for the scans and Cryomancer of the Optical Internet Translation Gang for the text editing and clean-up.  I'll probably take a little time off from reviewing in the next week or two so I can translate chapter 3.  In the meantime, of course, that'll mean some Awesome Turtle Pictures to keep the place updating.

Enjoy!

TMNT III manga Chapter 1: Translated and ready to read!

Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Chapter 1: "Time Warp!?" is translated and ready to download over at the Optical Internet Translation Gang's homepage!

This is the first of 6 chapters from the Comic Bom Bom adaptation of the third live-action TMNT film.  The original story and art was by Haato Mikaeru, the translation was by myself, the image-editing was by Cryomancer of the Optical Internet Translation Gang and the scans were provided by Adam Winters.

You'll notice right off the bat that this adaptation deviates considerably from the actual TMNT III, with a cameo appearance from a certain serrated villain in the opening pages.  I did my best to preserve the puns (or localize them wherever possible) and speech patterns of certain characters (Kenshin in particular).  Hopefully you get a kick out of all this weirdness.

Now that Chapter 1 is done, I'm going to get started on Chapter 2.  That means reviews might be a little scarce for the next week or two while I devote my daily allotment of Turtle Time to translating.  I'll try to throw up some Awesome Turtle Pictures to maintain an update status, though.

And if you haven't explored it yet, there's quite a backlog of translated TMNT manga archived on this site you may wish to check out!

Mutant Turtles Gaiden chapter 4 reviewed!

I conclude my series of reviews of Hiroshi Kanno's Mutant Turtles Gaiden manga for Adventures in Poor Taste with this fourth installment.  And as it happens, Chapter 4 is the best one in the series.

Mutant Turtles Gaiden chapter 4: "Discover Japan" reviewed.

Full of self-awareness, hilarious cultural satire and some creepy fanservice, it ends the woefully short series on a definite high note.

Mutant Turtles Gaiden chapter 3 review

Reviewed the third chapter of Hiroshi Kanno's Mutant Turtles Gaiden manga for Adventures in Poor Taste.

Relive all the suspense and thrills as the Turtles struggle to defeat the Devil's Monster!

I'm more excited about getting to chapter 4 next week, though.  That one is amazing.

Mutant Turtles Gaiden Chapter 2 review

Another quickie manga review over at Adventures in Poor Taste, this time covering Chapter 2 of Hiroshi Kanno's Mutant Turtles Gaiden.

Chapter 2: "Beat the Phony Turtles!" review at Adventures in Poor Taste.

My second favorite chapter of Mutant Turtles Gaiden, just for the oh-so-Japanese take on the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang.  The "Burning Justice" crap I probably could have done without, though.

Mutant Turtles Gaiden quickie review

Over at Adventures in Poor Taste today I did a quickie review of the first chapter of the Mutant Turtles Gaiden manga. More a rundown with some side commentary for those who are just learning that the stuff exists, really.

You can check out the article right here.

And if you haven't yet, you can find links to full translations of all the Mutant Turtles manga right here at TMNT Entity.